Sections

London 2012 Olympics: Triathlete Paula Findlay finishes last in triathlon

Canada's Paula Findlay is comforted by a coach after finishing the women's triathlon event at Hyde Park at the 2012 Olympic Games in London on August 4, 2012. Photo: COFFRINIFABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/GettyImages

Sean Fitz-Gerald

Published: August 4, 2012 - 2:30 PM

LONDON — Twelve minutes after the winner crossed the finish line, after the cheering died down and the competitors began to disperse, a solitary figure appeared on the big screen, jogging slowly down the final straightaway, sobbing behind her wraparound sunglasses.

Paula Findlay had thought about quitting the race. She was slow to leave the water, her legs failed her on the bicycle and she felt dizzy on the run. She could have quit on the first lap, and nearly did, but continued struggling for the satisfaction of finishing.

She looked into the crowd down the straightaway. Friends and family had made the trip from Canada to watch the 23-year-old compete in the triathlon at the London Olympics.

Findlay was the last woman to cross the finish line.

The crowd applauded, and she dissolved again.

“I feel so bad,” she said. “They came to watch me, and I wish I could have made them more proud than that. I just want to apologize. I feel terrible. I’m really sorry to everybody. To Canada.”

Findlay won five major International Triathlon Union events over the two years leading up to the Olympics, including one on the same course she ran Saturday. It made her a sensation, an odds-on medal favourite. And then she injured her hip, spent the past year trying to get healthy and, weeks before London, she and her coach parted ways.

“I had big hopes for myself,” she said. “I know other people had big hopes for me.”

Findlay finished in 52nd place, 12 minutes and 21 seconds behind the gold medallist and more than a minute behind the woman who finished second-to-last. Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig won the race after a photo finish with Sweden’s Lisa Norden, with both women crossing the line in a time of 1:59:48; Spirig was later judged to have crossed a fraction of a second earlier.

Kathy Tremblay, the only other Canadian in the race, crashed early in the cycling portion, tried to continue, but did not finish.

“In the Olympics, you cannot abandon,” Tremblay said.

She said her team uncovered a small hole in the rear tire of her bicycle as she was getting ready to race. They changed the tire, but she wondered if it might have been inflated too much, given the way she slipped around the road course.

The race began at 9 a.m. local time, with occasional drizzle adding to the base coat left by showers overnight. Tremblay crashed on the same slick corner that claimed several riders on Saturday. She kept pedalling, even though the chain on her bike was damaged.

Race officials flagged her off the course when she was lapped.

“Even if you crash,” Tremblay said, “you get back on your bike and just f—ing go for it, you know?”

There was nothing mechanically wrong with Findlay’s bicycle, except that she could not generate any power. She said the hip injury that sidelined her for months — that kept her from an Olympic-length triathlon for almost a year before Saturday’s race — was not the issue: “My legs weren’t working … stupid legs.”

Simon Whitfield, the triathlete who carried Canada’s flag into the opening ceremony last week, watched Findlay race on television.

“She has nothing to apologize for,” he said. “She’s an extraordinary athlete, a great person. I hope she spends some time around my kids. I want my kids to grow up to be Olympians, with the possibility of going to medical school or law school. Her parents should be very proud of her.”

And the blame, he said, should not fall wholly on her shoulders.

“There’s a handful of people who should stand up and say, ‘that’s on me,’” Whitfield said. “They were very quick to celebrate her wins a year-and-a-half ago — ‘greatest-ever’ and ‘one-in-a-million athlete’ — and when the going got tough, they jumped ship.”

And while he would not elaborate, Findlay and coach Patrick Kelly recently parted ways. Kelly could not immediately be reached for comment.

Several factors played into the move, according to Alan Trivett, executive director of Triathlon Canada. Findlay’s nagging hip injury, for one, evolved into a cycle of flare-ups between training sessions, which hampered preparations for London: “I think that wore on the relationship between Paula and her coach,” Trivett said on Saturday.

The cumulative effects — of the injury, the pressure, the expectation and potentially even the coaching change — were laid bare on the course.

“I hate quitting, and the only reason I would have pulled off is because I was doing badly and I felt bad,” Findlay said, half giggling, half crying. “I wasn’t injuring myself. I’m still alive. I’m just 12 minutes behind.”